jr uuiM'oMbbb 



013 703 179 6 



SENATE.... 


No. 2. 


E 513 
.114 
Copy 1 




ADDRESS 

OF 

HIS EXCELLENCY 



JOHN A. ANDREW, 



TWO BLANCHES 



f ^pslature of Passatjjuselts, 



JANUARY 5, 1861 



BOSTON: 

WILLIAM WHITE, PKINTER TO THE STATE. 
1861. 






I 



: :. V 

J 3 



i 



^ 



ADDRESS 



Gentlemen of the Senate and 

House of Representatives : 

The responsible positions to which we have been 
respectively called by the suffrages of the People of 
Massachusetts, demand of us a pause, on the threshold 
of the year, for a brief survey of the field of our labors 
and a summary review of the duties before us. 

Surrounded by all the evidences of plenty gathered 
from the workshop, the mart, the field and the fold ; 
representing a people prospered in all the undertakings 
of industry, and graciously defended during the year 
which has closed, against wasting disease or public 
calamity ; we ought Avith grateful hearts to pay our 
vows of obedience to the Great Lawgiver of the 
Universe, and to adore Plis bountiful goodness. 

And whatever shadows may cloud for the time our 
National horizon ; walking in the faith which becomes 
men, — rational, immortal and believing, who perceive 
in difficulties only obstacles to be overcome, — let us 
meet the duties and, if need be, the dangers of the 
future, with lofty and triumphant cheer. 

In a spirit and with the purpose of justice towards 
all other peoples and States, our immediate and official 



4 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

obligations are mainly due to that ancient and beloved 
Commonwealth, in whose service we are assembled. 

I have obtained from the Treasury Department, and 
herewith present to the Legislature, the following 
Financial Statement • of the Commonwealth of Massa- 
chusetts, up to December 2-4th, 1860 : — 

Liabilities on account of Railroad Corporations. 
Western Railroad Corporation, . . . §3,999,555 56 
Eastern Railroad Corporation, . . . 500,000 00 
Norwich Railroad Corporation, . . . 400,000 00 
Southern Vermont Railroad Corporation, . 200,000 00 
Trov & Greenfield Railroad Corporation, . 427,572 00 

85,526,127 56 

Funded Debt. 
Lun. Ho5p. Scrip, 1852, due 1865, §100,000 00 
" 1853, " 1865, 70,000 00 
" 1854, " 1874, 94,000 00 

8264,000 00 

St. Almshouse " 1852, " 1872,8100,000 00 

" 1853, " 1873, 60,000 00 

» " " 1854, " 1874, 50,000 00 



State House " 1853, " 1873, 865,000 00 
" 1854, " 1874, 100,000 00 



Six per cent. " 1856, " 1862,8100,000 00 
" 1856, " 1864, 100,000 00 
" 18.56, " 1866, 100,000 00 



Lun. IIosp. " 1857, " 1868, §150,000 00 
" " 1857, " 1877, 50,000 00 



Con. Stats. " 1860, " 1870, 8150,000 00 



Temp-rj- Loans due'Jan. 1, 1860, 8240,429 77 
Reduc'd by issue of Scrip, 1860, 1.50,000 00 



210,000 00 
165,000 00 

300,000 00 

200,000 00 
150,000 00 

896.429 77 



86,815,127 80 



Estimated Deficit for 1800, .... 170,000 00 

266,429 77 



87,081,557 33 



1861.] 



SENATE— No. 2. 



For the liabilities and debts before stated, provision 
has been made by law, as follows : — 

Liabilities on account of Railroad Corporations. 
Mortgage W. R. R. Co.'s entire property, . $3,999,555 56 
Sinking Fund, W. R., amounting to . . 1,600,000 00 
Mortgage E. R. R. Co.'s entire property, . 500,000 00 
Mortgage N. & W. R. R. Co.'s " . 400,000 00 

Sinking Fund, N. & W. R. R., am'nting to 66,000 00 
Troy & Greenfield R. R. entire property, . 427,572 00 
Sinking Fund, T. & G. R. R., amounting to 20,000 00 
Southern Vt. R. R. Co.'s entire property, . 200,000 00 



$7,21.3,127 56 



For Funded DeU. 
Debt E.Kt'm't Fund, 7,056 W. R. R. Sfk, par, 1705,600 00 
Present value, premium 10 per cent., . 70,560 00 

W. R. R. Stock Fund, bal. of securities, . 115,.500 00 



Less am't advanced on these securities. 



Back Bay Lands Fund appropriated. 
Almshouse Sinking Fund, 



Payments for 1860 amount to about 
Receipts for 1860 amount to about 



1891,660 00 
46,000 00 

$845,660 00 

300,000 00 

53,548 00 



$1,185,000 00 
1,015,000 00 



1,199,208 00 
g8,412,335 56 



Deficit, $170,000 00 

This deficit arises in part from the following extraor- 
dinary payments, to wit: — 



Extra Session and Cattle destroy 
Con. Statutes, 

State Reform School for Boys, 
Nautical Branch, 
Wesleyan Academy, . 
Valuation Committee, 
Repairs on State House, 
State Prison, 

Total deficit, 



ed, 



$.52,000 00 
21,000 00 
27,000 00 
16,000 00 
22,000 00 
15,000 00 
10,000 00 
7,000 00- 

$170,000 oa 



6 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

The expenses of the ensuing year, estunated, will be 
considerably less than the present, and unless some 
extraordinary emergency arises, the revenue will more 
nearly equal the expenditures. 



Expenditures for 1861, estimate, 
Revenue, including unpaid tax 1860, 



Deficit, 1861, .... 
Deficit of previous years, . 

To be provided for by tax or otherwise, 



$870,000 00 
760,000 00 

$110,000 00 
267,000 00 

$377,000 00 



The fiscal year closes on the 31st of December, and 
therefore the statements given are only an approxima- 
tion to the actual results, which may vary somewhat 
the above. 

The Valuation of the Commonwealth. 

The Legislative Committee appointed to compute the 
valuation of the Commonwealth as a basis for State 
taxation during the next ten years, has recently con- 
cluded its labors after a session which was protracted 
to a length of more than a hundred days, beginning 
September 5th, 1860, and ending January 1st, 1861, 
at a cost of ;$(13,191.50, for the pay of its members, 
and ;$f6,322, for its contingent expenses. The aggre- 
gate valuation of taxable property is computed at the 
sum of ^897,795,326, which is ^299,858,330 more 
than the State valuation of 1850, exhibiting an increase 
of about fifty per cent, in the wealth of the State 
during the last ten years. When it is remem- 



1861.] SENATE— No. 2. 7 

bered that considerable sums (in the hands especially 
of small property holders, of which deposits in 
Savings Banks not exceeding ^500 each, may be 
taken as an illustration,) have been omitted from the 
assessment, the result discloses that the wealth of the 
people of Massachusetts averages not less than ^750 
to each inhabitant, irrespective of age or sex. The 
proportionate distribution of this wealth among the 
people is illustrated by the fact that the amount of 
deposits in the Savings Institutions of the Common- 
wealth on the fourth Saturday of October last, as 
shown by the annual report of the Bank Commission- 
ers, was ^45,054,235, although these institutions are 
prohibited by statute from holding at the same time 
more than ^1,000 of one depositor, other than a reli- 
gious or charitable corporation ; and these deposits 
represent only a fraction of the savings from the 
daily industry oi the working classes. The policy of 
encouraging families to become land-owners, by ex- 
empting their homesteads to the value of ;^800 from 
seizure on execution, has helped to preserve their ac- 
cumulations; and the numerous modes in which 
small savings are invested by private loans and 
friendly accommodation, help largely to increase and 
to preserve their aggregate. 

The industrial statistics of the Commonwealth are 
compiled but once in ten years. The last compila- 
tion was in 1855, when it appeared that the annual 
production from the industry of Massachusetts 



8 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

amounted to ^295,820,681, which was an increase 
of 138 per cent, over the amount exhibited by the 
last previous compilation ; nor can it be doubted that 
the productive capacity of our people since 1855 
has kept pace with the gratifying increase of their 
capital. A Commonwealth of 1,231,535 persons, on 
an area of only 7,800 square miles, with a property of 
nearly ;^900,000,000, whose people are all free, and 
whose poorest child may be educated in the free 
schools of the State, is a noble monument of the 
triumphs of intelligence and liberty. 

In this connection I respectfully recommend to the 
General Court to provide some less expensive and 
cumbrous method for ascertaining the valuation of the 
State, than that which has hitherto been pursued. The 
details of a more economical and efficient plan Avill be 
suggested if it shall be deemed desirable. 

Militia. 

The whole number of our enrolled militia for the year 
1860, (from Avhich, of course, is excluded firemen and 
other exempts,) was 155,389 men. The active militia, 
uniformed, armed and equipped, drilled and organized, 
ready for active service on call, — including its various 
arms of infantry, cavalry and artillery, numbered 
5,592. In respect to good conduct, discipline, spirit 
and capacity proportioned to its numerical force, I am 
advised that our active citizen soldiery was never in a 
condition of greater efficiencv. 



1861.] SENATE— No. 2. 9 

But, T venture tlie inquiry whether, in addition there- 
to, the dormant militia, or some considerable portion of 
it, (now simply enrolled and not organized nor subject to 
drill,) ought not, in confoiTnity with the theory of the 
institution itself, to be placed on a footing of activity. 
For how otherwise, in the possible contingencies of 
the future, can we be sure that Massachusetts has 
taken care to preserve the manly self-reliance of the 
citizens, by which alone, in the long run, can the 
creation of standing armies be averted, and the 
State also be ready, without inconvenient delay, to 
contribute her share of force in any exigency of 
public danger 1 

Agriculture. 

The agricultural interests of the Commonwealth, 
have, in the main, been exceedingly prosperous during 
the past year, notwithstanding the presence, in the 
spring, of that disease among neat-stock which, it was 
feared by many, would prove unmanageable and disas- 
trous. I am advised that the amount drawn on 
account of the Commissioners appointed to extermi- 
nate that disease, is ;^29,259.33, and that the amount 
actually paid or to be paid on that account, wiU exceed 
;^30,000, without including the expenses of the extra 
session of the Legislature called to consider the dis- 
order, which amounted to ^20,650. 

All the farm-crops during the season have been fully 
up to the average production of preceding years ; and 



10 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

some of tliem, such as fruits, wheat, barley, and oats, 
have yielded far more than was ever before known in 
the Commonwealth. Attention to slieep husbandry is 
now on the increase, by reason of the protection Avhich 
has been afforded to it by judicious legislation ; and 
the importance of this branch of farming to the vari- 
ous interests of New England, can hardly be over-esti- 
mated. The encouragement extended by the Legisla- 
ture to the fomiation of Fanners' Clubs throughout 
the State has had the desired effect, and the number 
of these associations has rapidly increased. 

In respect to Agricultural Literature, the State Board 
of Agriculture have in preparation a Manual of Agri- 
culture for use in schools, and it is hoped that addi- 
tional elementary instruction in matters connected 
with the daily experience of our country youth, may 
increase public interest in this great source of our 
material prosperity. The progress made in the revis- 
ion of Mr. Harris's Treatise concerning Insects Injuri- 
ous to Vegetation has been very satisfactory, and that 
valuable work will be issued during the coming year 
in a manner which will be creditable to the Common- 
wealth. An edition of 2,500 copies was ordered by 
statute in 1859, but only partial provision was made 
for the distribution of them. About 1,000 copies will 
remain at the disposal of the present or of some sub- 
sequent Legislature, and I respectfully suggest that a 
proper number shall be placed, for distribution, with 



1861.] SENATE— No. 2. 11 

Professor Agassiz, who has gratuitously rendered 
essential service in the revision of the work. 

Banks and Banking. 

In view of the recent financial perturbation, the 
subject of Banks and Banking will undoubtedly at- 
tract your attention. No one can pretend that our 
system of banking is perfect, while very few will deny 
that the currency of New England, and especially of 
Massachusetts, is as safe and convenient as that of any 
other section of the country. Oiir present system is 
the result of long experience, and I trust that no rad- 
ical change will be attempted with respect to any of 
its features, without mature consideration. Under ex- 
isting circumstances, I deem a conservative course of 
legislation in this respect to be best for the Common- 
wealth, and that we should be cautious about encour- 
aging any new theories of banking concerning which 
the public mind is divided, without requiring the sub- 
ject to be thoroughly investigated by a committee ap- 
pointed for that purpose, in the manner customary in 
the British Parliament. As it is the duty of govern- 
ment to throw every safeguard around the person of 
every inhabitant of the State, so it is also its duty 
to protect all property, whether it be individual or 
corporate. So long as the banks are conducted in 
good faith towards the people, so long should they 
be sustained under their charters. It is common 
to charge the banks with responsibility for our finan- 



12 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

cial difficulties, and it is doubtless true that they 
have more or less to do with them ; but financial 
troubles and panics are by no means peculiar to this 
country. They have occurred from time to time in all 
civilized communities where business is done on credit, 
being sometimes created by a single cause, and at 
others by a combination of circumstances, while at 
still others it is difficult to trace them to any definite 
source. Their occurrence cannot be prevented by leg- 
islation, for no legislation can invariably anticipate the 
future and provide against all its contingencies. The 
remedy is to be found in less speculation, more limited 
credits, greater caution, and a more thorough study of 
the laws of trade, and adherence to its established 
principles ; and above all, in the diff"usion of such a 
sentiment of patriotism as shall never justify a doubt 
of the stability of our institutions. 

The privileges of the General Banking Law have 
not been embraced in the country towns ; but in Boston 
several banks have been organized under its authority, 
and a large amount of banking capital thereby created. 
If you think that the increase of corporations thus 
organized may become too rapid, the power to organ- 
ize them could be suspended for a season, leaving the 
law, in other respects, in force ; and if you think that 
the whole law should be repealed, charters might 
be granted to the banks already organized under it, if 
they are willing to accept them. 



1861.] SENATE— No. 2. 13 

The able report of the Bank Commissioners will be 
placed in your hands, and I commend to your attention 
its statistics and suggestions, especially concerning an 
increase of specie in the vaults of the banks. But it 
may be well to inquire whether any arbitrary or mechan- 
ical rule in this respect, can ever be successfully applied 
to a matter so delicate as a mixed currency, in its rela- 
tion to the business of our community, involved as it 
is with that of the whole commercial world, and sus- 
tained upon a universal system of credit. To require 
only that moderate quantity of specie to be held by 
the banks which is supposed to be safe for the ordinary 
course of business, seems plainly inadequate, for in 
moments of unforeseen and sudden panic or disaster, 
the banks thereby become powerless, and the system 
fails. But supposing that an amount of specie twice 
as large as that deemed absolutely necessary in ordinary 
times, were required to be maintained, might not the 
use of a portion of the specie so accumulated, be per- 
mitted at the discretion of some branch of the govern- 
ment, for the purpose of meeting temporary exigencies 
requiring such relief^ Many examples of the Avisdom 
of such a course, and tests of its safety, have occurred 
both in England and in France. One of the most 
striking illustrations of the benefits of a flexibility of 
the banking laws in this particular, by lodging a dis- 
cretionary power somewhere, to accommodate artificial 
rules to the exigencies of a life so mercurial as that of 
commerce, was aff'orded in Great Britain three years 



14 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

ago. A panic Avas then at its height, and a crisis was 
imminent. The Bank of England was forbidden to 
issue notes of a denomination less than five pounds. 
But at this moment the government removed the 
restriction temporarily, and the Bank proceeded to 
issue several millions in one pound notes. Specie 
immediately flowed into its vaults, the small notes 
taking the place of metallic currency among the 
population ; and the result was immediate and perma- 
nent relief. This circumstance also illustrated the 
usefulness of generally restricting the issue of small 
bank-notes. 

The Usury Laws. 

In this connection I wash to call yoiir attention to 
the propriety of making some change in our usury 
laws. In the year 1818, a very able committee ap- 
pointed by the British House of Commons, made an 
elaborate report, recommending a modification of the 
usury laws. But so strongly were the people opposed 
to the measure, that more than twenty years elapsed 
before any favorable action to that end was adopted. 
At last in 1839, a law was enacted by Parliament 
exempting bills of exchange and promissory notes not 
having more than twelve months to run, from the 
operation of these laws ; and for twenty-one years 
this enactment has been satisfactory to the British 
public. Might not a similar statute prove equally 
useful and popular in this Commonwealth, tend to 



1861.] SENATE— No. 2. 15 

retain capital at home, and prove in the end a great 
relief to borrowers of money 1 Such a change in our 
legislation respecting usury could hardly be called an 
experiment, when in making it we should follow the 
cautious example of England after its long and satis- 
factory experience by a people who so much resemble 
ourselves. 

Mutual Insurance Companies. 

The principle of Mutual Insurance is one which 
should be preserved and cherished, but the methods 
and operation of the institutions for mutual insurance 
cannot be too cautiously inspected. Those institutions 
solicit and receive the confidence of many thousands 
of people who trust in them to the extent of many 
millions of dollars, for indemnity against loss by 
the perils of fire ; and these people rely upon 
the quality of the charters which you grant, 
and upon the efficiency of your legislation in this 
regard. I respectfully invite your attention to exist- 
ing defects in the method of laying and collecting 
assessments by these institutions, and to the need of 
providing efiicient means to compel the imposition and 
levy of assessments when they become necessary for 
payment of losses. The subject of exercising control 
over the form of the policies issued by these compa- 
nies, also deserves consideration, for they are often 
burdened with conditions so numerous and intricate 



16 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

that intelligent and careful business men are misled 
by their teiTns, so that having supposed themselves 
effectually insured, they awake to a knowledge of their 
mistake only after a remedy has become impossible. 

Public Charitable Institutions. 

The reports of the Board of Education and from 
the various public institutions and commissions estab- 
lished for charity to the poor-, for the relief and cure 
of the diseased, and for the correction and reform of 
criminals, will present in detail the Educational, 
Charitable, Sanitary and Penal Statistics of the Com- 
monwealth. They concern matters which demand and 
shall receive the diligent supervision of the Executive 
Department throughout the year. 

The obligation of a government to protect the per- 
sons and property of its subjects, enjoins the duty of 
taking care of those who are unable to take care of 
themselves. The child should be taught, the insane 
should be guarded, the deaf, the dumb, and the blind 
should be cared for, and the idiot should be remembered 
and protected. I commend to your especial care all 
our benevolent institutions, and I should be glad if 
the list could be enlarged by adding one for the cure 
of inebriates. 

Capital Punishment. 

The punishment of offenders is perhaps the gravest 
responsibility of civilized society, and in modem times 



1861.] SENATE— No. 2. 17 

the utmost attention of the sincerest thmkers and 
observers has been bestowed upon the philosophy and 
the phenomena of crime. In order that the laws may 
be both just and humane, it is necessary that detection 
and punishment shall be speedy and sure, and also that 
prevention and reform shall be secured in the largest 
measure. The progress of civilization steadily dimin- 
ishes crimes of violence, and also steadily discourages 
punishments of a violent, cruel, or sanguinary charac- 
ter. The infliction of the penalty of death as a pun- 
ishment for crime will one day be discontinued among 
civilized men. Already, philosophers, jurists, and 
statesmen, in large numbers, possessed of the most 
comprehensive experience of human affairs, and clothed 
with the highest authority, have pronounced against 
it ; and it Avill initiate a nevs^ era in the progress of 
Massachusetts when she shall conform her penal legis- 
lation to the most enlightened principles of criminal 
jurisprudence, and consult her truest safety by its 
abolition. Whenever that event shall occur, whether 
as a private citizen, or in a public capacity, I • shall 
respect the intelligence and assent to the policy by 
which it will be accomplished. 

Practical Scientific Institutions. 

The wise foresight which has secured such large 
provision for the education of the children of the 
Commonwealth, enjoins us to use all reasonable means 
to promote the spread of useful knowledge, and espe- 



18 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

cially to facilitate such practical scientific instruction 
as shall elevate while it invigorates the industrial 
arts. 

A favorable opportunity is now afi"orded to advance 
this desirable object by setting apart a suitable por- 
tion of the Back Bay lands for the accommodation 
and collocation of institutions devoted to practical 
branches of art and science. In this connection, the 
views and wishes of the Boston Society of Natural 
History, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and 
the Institute of Technology have already to some extent 
been presented to the Legislature, and will, it is under- 
stood, be submitted to you during your present session, 
in detail. The valuable contributions which the two 
first named societies have rendered, the enlarged sphere 
of usefulness which wider these new conditions they 
would be enabled to fill, and the material benefits which 
the proposed Institute of Technology is adapted to 
confer, are considerations Avhich commend the purposes 
of the petitioners to the favorable attention of all 
friends of education and industry, and will, I doubt 
not, receive at your hands such liberal appreciation 
as they deserve. 

Boston Harbor and Back Bay. 

The preservation of the harbor of Boston against 
deterioration, is a subject of grave concern ; and I 
trust that any measures which may be proposed to 
you, possibly affecting it, will be vigilantly scruti- 



1861.] SENATE— No. 2. 19 

nized. I would also call attention to the question 
whether any method can be devised in the present 
state of the work of filling the Back Bay, to secure 
to the public health the benefits contemplated by the 
reservation of a full basin, agreeably to a memorial of 
Hon. Josiah Quincy, Senior, and other citizens, to the 
last Legislature, which stands referred to the present 
one. 

Marriage and Divorce. 

While considering the personal interests of the 
people of the Commonwealth, I cannot persuade 
myself that I shall have performed my duty until 
I have invoked your consideration of an anomaly in 
our law, by which, under the operation of the process 
of divorce, society creates husbands who have no 
wives, and wives who have no husbands. This 
anomaly originated many ages ago, in certain eccle- 
siastical theories concerning the institution of mar- 
riage, and was devised by the ecclesiastics themselves. 
In our own age, the theory upon which the law 
enforces the celibacy of a divorced husband or wife, 
is that of punishment for the offence which was the 
occasion of the divorce. But this offence, so far as it 
relates to the injured party to the marriage, is punished 
by the dissolution of that relation upon the petition 
of that very party, and by the decree of alimony, or 
other pecuniary advantages, as the Statutes ma}- 
determine ; and so far as it relates to society, it ought 



20 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

to be punishable solely by means of crimiual process 
maintained by the public prosecutor in conformity 
with the criminal laws. Thus only can each case 
receive its appropriate and proportionate punishment, 
according to its peculiar circumstances, and thus only 
can the accused be insured the benefit of a trial for 
his alleged crime, such as shall be in accordance with 
the principles of our criminal jurisprudence. Now, 
upon the hearing of a libel for divorce, before a single 
judge, the party seeking the divorce is entitled for 
his or her relief, to certain inferences of guilt from 
circumstances from which a jury, in many cases, would 
not and ought not to draw such inferences, were the 
controversy between the government and the accused, 
and not between a husband and a wife. Thus a 
party is sometimes practically sentenced to celibacy so 
long as he shall remain a citizen of Massachusetts, as 
a punishment for a crime for which he was never tried 
nor indicted, and of which in truth and fact he may 
not have been guilty, although a divorce was properly 
decreed against him according to the rules of the 
ecclesiastical law. And whether morality is promoted 
by prohibiting the formation of new domestic rela- 
tions, and thereby Avithholding the opportunity for 
fidelity in the future in order to punish infidelity in 
the past, is a question much debated in the gravest 
and most thoughtful minds ; but long reflection has 
satisfied me that it is expedient at least to lodge in 
some tribunal the power to mitigate the hardships 



1861.] SENATE— No. 2. 21 

of the law, according to the cu-cumstances of each 
case, whatever may have been the cause of the 
dissohition of the marriage. 

The Cape Cod Canal. 

The surveys ordered by the last Legislature for a 
Ship Canal between Barnstable and Buzzard's Bay are 
in progress under the care of the Joint Committee 
which was charged with their direction. Statistics 
have been collected which exhibit the dangers incident 
to the navigation around Cape Cod, and demonstrate 
the commercial advantages to be derived from the con- 
templated canal. A topographical chart of the pro- 
posed route, and hydrographical charts of its termini, 
have been completed at a moderate expense, by offi- 
cers of the National Coast Survey, assisted by the 
advice of the United States' Commissioners on Boston 
Harbor. Engineers are now engaged in locating the 
line of the canal upon this route, and preparing for 
sectional surveys, and making plans and estimates for 
the entire work. The appropriation made at the last 
session for these objects has been exhausted, and an 
additional grant is needed to cover the expense of past 
as well as to provide for future services. The design 
of this canal having been entertained by the State as 
well as by the Federal government at intervals ever 
since 1776, there seems to be a propriety in completing 
at the present time this examination into the feasibility 
of the proposed undertaking, in order to act intelli- 



22 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

gently upon a question which has claimed so large a 
share of public attention. The Joint Committee will 
report to the Legislature at an early day the results of 
their labor, so far as they are ascertained. The report 
which was ordered by the last Legislature, has been 
delayed, by reason of the impossibility of completing 
the surveys in season to comply with the terms of that 
order. 

The Provincial Statutes. 

I earnestly recommend the collection and publication 
under the patronage of the Commonwealth, of the 
Statutes enacted between the time of the union of the 
two colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay 
under the Charter of William and Mary in 1691, and 
that of the adoption of the Constitution of 1780. 
Not more than a moiety of these Provincial Laws are 
to be found among the accumulations of the State 
Library ; but the zeal and intelligent industry of one 
gentleman of the bar, has enabled him, after years of 
careful search, to complete a collection of them. They 
are of inestimable value on account of their historical 
interest, their usefulness in throwing light upon sub- 
sequent legislation, and the assistance which they 
afford in the determination of many important c^ues- 
tions mooted by the profession and the courts. An 
edition of 2,500 copies, in two octavo volumes, can 
be published at a cost of not more than ^10,000, 
including the expense of editing the work. 



1861.] SENATE— No. 2. 23 

The Two Years Amendment. 

I beg leave to ask the Legislature to consider the 
propriety of initiating the appropriate measure for 
enabling the people to pass once more upon the sub- 
ject of the limitation of the exercise of the right of 
suffrage by citizens of foreign birth. The amendment 
of the Constitution by which that limitation was 
imposed, was voted upon at a time specially assigned 
for that purpose, and not at any regular or usual 
meeting of the towns, or any day of election. The 
vote was so small as to afford no safe indication of the 
will of the people, and I am convinced that the result 
does not agree with their opinion. 

The whole number of votes oast was only 36,517; 
while a full vote is about 180,000. 

This amendment has been thought by some to be 
needful to preserve the purity of elections by prevent- 
ing frauds upon our system of registration. But it is 
to be remembered that the person naturalized cannot 
vote, (any more than a native born citizen) — unless he 
shall have " resided within the State one year, and 
within the City or Town, in which he claims the right 
to vote, six months next preceding any election." 
This precludes the sudden influx of strangers ; and 
when any person desires his name to be placed on the 
list of voters, the Mayof and Aldermen, or Selectmen, 
require the proper proof of the residence of the party, 
of his naturalization and the payment of his tax, and 
of his other qualifications. 



24 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

I suggest that there should also be required by 
statute a residence within any Congressional district 
in which a right to vote may be claimed, for six 
months next preceding the election. This measure 
stands upon the same grounds of propriety which 
require such residence in the city or town, and would 
prevent the possible effort to defeat the will of the 
majority of bona fide inhabitants of a Congressional 
district, by the colonization of voters from another 
district, in a case where some of the wards of a city lie 
in one district and the remaining wards in another. 

The General Statutes. 

I respectfully suggest to the Legislature the pro- 
priety of refraining from alterations of the General 
Statutes of the Commonwealth, not clearly requisite 
in order to repair accidental errors or omissions, or to 
conform legislation to new wants, or to reform abuses. 

The General Statutes as recently revised, have 
been less than one year in operation. The revision 
received more or less attention from several successive 
Legislatures. It was the work of eminent Commis- 
sioners, which they constructed with critical, intelli- 
gent and laborious care and learning. Their Report 
was submitted to a numerous Joint Committee of both 
branches of the Legislature o€ 1 859. This Committee 
sat for one hundred and nine days in reexamination 
of the work, and its final Report was, in turn, made 
to the Legislature convened in special session for the 



1861.] SENATE— No. 2. 2S 

single purpose of its consideration. This session, 
commencing September 7th, closed December 28th, 
and the labors of the Commissioners and the Com- 
mittee were subjected to a minute, independent and 
thorough criticism, never surpassed under similar 
circumstances. Finally, the Governor of the Com- 
monwealth, in the exercise of his duty of original re- 
examination preparatory to the expression of approval 
or dissent, discovered a single instance of possible 
conflict between these Statutes ^nd the laws of Con- 
gress. This consisted in the omission of a word from 
one of the chapters, which led him to apprehend a 
Avant of conformity between that chapter and a cer- 
tain provision of the Federal law touching the organ- 
ization of the militia. With conscientious zeal he 
invoked the opinion of the Attorney-General and of 
the Judges of the Supreme Court upon the cj^uestion. 
Their reply confirmed his objections, and he returned 
to the Legislafure the whole body of the Revised 
i^tatutes unapproved in consequence of the omission. 
The Legislature restored the omitted word, and the 
unhesitating bestowal of the executive sanction then 
conferred upon the work the authority of law. 

I mention this to illustrate the minute fidelity with 
which the revision was accomplished. Able hands 
conducted the enterprise ; vigilant eyes watched and 
criticised it at every step of its progress ; and the most 
eminent lawyers and statesmen of the party in opposi- 
tion, were members of the Committee, and sat in the 



h GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

Legislature by which it was at last perfected. Printed 
copies of the Report of the Commissioners were pro- 
fusely distributed among lawyers and jurists, whose 
aid was invoked for the discovery of errors, or inaccu- 
racies of any kind. The intelligence, learning, good 
faith, and patriotism of the entire legal mind of the 
Commonwealth was thus directed to the labor. 

A large measure of respect is due to a body of law 
prepared with a care so elaborately exhaustive of all 
possible means of ajjpuracy. And I think that it is 
due to truth and to the merits of the work to declare 
that in my humble judgment such respect will be 
amply justified by the experience of the future. 

The Provisions of the Statutes concerning Personal 
Liberty. 

I cannot, however, forget at this moment some re- 
cent impeachments of our legislation providing safe- 
guards for personal liberty ; but it is impossible f6r me 
to compress within the restricted space allowable fcjr 
the purpose, a review of the objections alleged against 
that legislation, or even of the reasons by which it 
commends itself to good citizens who believe in its 
propriety. The subject opens too broad a field of juri- 
dical inquiry and erudition to be mapped out on this 
occasion. But I think that if it could be remembered 
that the liberties of white men and of their children 
are involved in its consideration, and if it could be for- 
gotten, in the discussion, that people of color have an 



1861,] SENATE— No. 2. 27 

existence, some advance would thereby be made to- 
wards clearing a vision now too easily beclouded, 
touching all matters which concern the African race. 

The governments of the United States and of this 
Commonwealth have co-ordinate jurisdiction, each 
within its own sphere, over the same territory. When 
either, by its appropriate officers, has obtained actual 
and lawful custody of a person or of property, for the 
purpose of legal inquiry into the title to the property, 
or the right to hold the person, or in order to try that 
person for crime, the person or the property, until that 
investigation shall be completed, is withdraAvu from 
the exercise of the corresponding jurisdiction of the 
other government. This is implied from the very co- 
existence of the two governments in federal relation- 
ship, and it is rarely expressed in the statutes of either, 
although it applies with equal force to both. It 
does not depend upon any supremacy or preference of 
the one government over the other, but upon the naked 
question which of them first acquires jurisdiction of 
the subject matter to be determined. 

The application of this principle to the provisions 
of the General Statutes of Massachusetts concerning 
the writ of habeas corpus, relieves them from all con- 
stitutional objection. Although our Statutes in terms 
require this writ in all cases except of imprisonment 
or restraint by a sheriif or similar officer of the Com- 
monwealth, to be addressed to the sheriffs and their 
deputies (as being the appropriate officers to execute 



28 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

the process of the C'ommonwealth,) and to direct them 
to take the body of the person alleged to be restrained 
of his liberty, as well as to summon the person who is 
alleged to restrain him ; yet if the person so restrained 
is held by a marshal of the United States by virtue of 
a lawful warrant from a judge or other authorized 
officer of the United States, for the purpose of con- 
ducting any legal inquiry, he cannot be taken out of 
the custody of the United States until the hearing 
upon that question has been finished and the result 
declared. The most that can be done is to summon 
the marshal to appear and show the cause of the 
restraint ; and this summons the marshal is bound by 
his duty as a citizen and a subject of the State, to obey. 
If he shows a process issued by lawful authority, valid 
to hold his prisoner, the State Court cannot take the 
prisoner from his custody for the purpose of a further 
exercise of its jurisdiction. But if the process, being 
produced, proves to be invalid or insufficient for the 
purpose for which it is proposed to be used, or if an 
alleged fugitive is not in the custody of an officer of 
the United States, but in that of a private person, 
there is nothing in the Constitution or Laws of the 
United States to prevent the trial by the State Courts 
upon habeas corpus, or other appropriate process, of 
the right of restraint alleged ; and in such cases the 
modes of proceeding and rules of evidence are to be 
determined by the Constitution and Laws of the 
State. 



1861.] SENATE— No. 2. 29 

By the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, " each 
individual of the society has a right to he protected 
by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty, and property, 
according to standing laws," and " every subject of the 
Commonwealth ought to find a certain remedy, by 
having recourse to the laws, for all injuries and wrongs 
Avhich he may receive in his person, property or char- 
acter. He ought to obtain right and justice freely, 
and without being obliged to purchase it ; completely, 
and without any denial ; promptly, and witliout delay ; 
conformably to the laws." The Legislature, in con- 
formity to the spirit of the Constitution, and knowing 
that obscure and friendless inhabitants of the Com- 
moirwealth are most in danger of being unlawfully 
deprived of their freedom, have taken measures to 
secure to every person seized or in danger of being 
seized as a fugitive from service, a fair and impartial 
trial ; and have also imposed an adequate punishment 
upon any one who shall undertake to remove from the 
State any person in the peace thereof and not a fugi- 
tive from his service, " on the pretence " that he is such 
a fugitive, " or with the intent to subject him " to 
slavery. By the well settled principles of the criminal 
law and the ordinary rules of construction of penal 
statutes, the unlawful intent must concur with the un- 
lawful act in order to subject any individual to the 
penalties of this statute. 

In 1842 the Supreme Court of the United States 
in the case of Prigg vs. The Commonwealth of Penn- 



30 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

sylvania, declared that " every State is perfectly com- 
petent and has the exclusive right to prescribe the 
remedies in its own judicial tribunals, to limit the 
time as well as the mode of redress, and to deny 
jurisdiction over cases which its oivn policy and its 
own institutions either proliibit or discountenance." 
And again the Court in the same case says, that 
" the States cannot be compelled to enforce them, 
[i. e. the provisions for the surrender of fugitives from 
labor,] and it might well be deemed an unconstitu- 
tional exercise of the power of interpretation, to insist 
that the States are bound to provide means to carry 
into effect the duties of the National Government, 
nowhere delegated or intrusted to them by the CJon- 
stitution." And again the Court says in allusion to 
the powers conferred upon State magistrates by the 
fugitive act of 1793, that as to the authority " conferred 
upon State magistrates, while a difference of opinion 
has existed and may exist still on the point in different 
States, whether State magistrates are bound to act 
under it, none is entertained by this Court that State 
magistrates may, if they choose, exercise that authority, 
tmless prohibited by State IccjislatioH." 

This decision not only frees the individual States 
from all action in the matter, but also expressly recog- 
nizes the power of the States to prohibit action by 
their officers under the acts of Congress. Accordingly 
this Commonwealth soon afterwards, in 1843, enacted 
the statute popularly known as the " Latimer law," and 



1861.] SENATE— No. 2. 31 

made it penal for any of its officers to aid in the cap- 
ture or detention of a person claimed as a fugitive 
from service; and in 1855 it enlarged its legislation 
upon this subject, by the addition of more comprehen- 
sive and stringent provisions, framed in the same spirit 
and for the same purpose. But in 1858, in order to 
prevent any confusion or uncertainty in the minds 
of the militia, which might arise from the idea of a 
divided duty, it imposed the responsibility for viola- 
tions of these Statutes by the militia, solely upon 
their commanding officers, by providing that their 
prohibitions and penalties shall " not apply to any act 
of military obedience and subordination performed by 
an officer or private of the militia." The prohibitions 
thus addressed to the civil and military servants of 
the Commonwealth, of course do not and cannot apply 
to them in their private capacity as citizens of the 
United States. 

It is certain that the legislation of Massachusetts is 
intended to be constitutional ; and I am bound to 
declare my belief that it has proceeded upon prin- 
ciples of the strictest constitutionality. If, however, 
any party to any legal proceeding shall deem himself 
aggrieved by any thing found written in our Statutes, 
we are consoled by the knowledge that he has access 
to judicial tribunals which will bestow most intelligent 
and conscientious attention to his complaint. What- 
ever legal truth the judicial mind may perceive in this 



32 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

or in any other regard, will be declared, because the 
judiciary exists not to make the law but to expound it 
There can be no doubt that the first and most sacred 
duty of government is to protect the lives and liberties 
of subjects. I believe that every person who is prima 
facie free, being in possesssion of his liberty and claim- 
ing title thereto ; that every parent being in possession 
of his child; or guardian having custody of his minor 
ward, has a right to a judicial vindication of his rights 
in that regard, whenever and wherever they are prac- 
tically drawn in question. And I do not think that 
a certificate issued to authorize a person from Califor- 
nia to seize and carry away, as and for his fugitive 
apprentice, the child of a Avhite inhabitant of INIassachu- 
setts, (which certificate may under the Fugitive Act of 
1850, be issued without any previous notice to or 
hearing of the child or its parent,) can bar the right 
of such child or parent to a determination by a com- 
petent tribunal, of the right of the child to be retained 
in this community, from which perhaps he may never 
have departed since the hour of his birth. So, too, I 
deny that a certificate so issued to a person from 
Massachusetts, authorizing him to seize and carry 
away, as and for his fugitive apprentice, the slave of 
an inhabitant of Georgia, (which certificate may under 
the Fugitive Act of 1850 be issued without any pre- 
vious notice to the master,) can bar the right of such 
master to a determination by a competent tribunal, of 
his right to retain his slave under the local law of 



1861.] SENATE— No. 2. 33 

Georgia. And the trial may in either case be had in 
any competent forum within the jurisdiction wliere 
the person may thus be seized. The Constitution of the 
United States, while it provides for the surrender of 
persons charged with crime ^ho have iled from one 
State into another, nevertheless, when it speaks of 
fugitives from labor, expressly restricts the authority 
to surrender, to the instances of those only who were 
held to service or labor and who did flee. And the 
right of a person to reclaim an alleged fugiti^'e from 
his service must always be subordinate to the original, 
prior, mdefeasible right of every freeman to his lib- 
erty, — to its preservation, to its instant and constant 
assertion, and to all the defences of it which pertain 
to the institutions of the Common Law. The proceed- 
ings under the Fugitive Act of 1850 are not judicial, 
and they are not adapted to determine the questions of 
right which arise whenever a free man or the wrong 
man is innocently seized, or recourse is had to the 
arbitrary provisions of the Act itself by mere kidnap- 
pers, for nefarious purposes. On the propriety of 
exerting all the constitutional power which we possess 
(but none other than that,) for the protection of the 
liberties of the people of the Commonwealth against 
kidnappers, there can be no debate ; and its necessity 
is illustrated by the surrender of persons claimed as 
fugitive slaves under the Act of 1850, who are known 
to have been free. In one case which I recall, the 
Commissioner denied to the accused person time to 



3i GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

• 
send for his free papers, and declared that they would 

not be admissable on such a hearing. In another 
instance, the person carried off was found by the claim- 
ant, as soon as he saw him, to be the wrong man, and 
was honestly allo^^ed to regain his liberty. In still 
another, a woman who is ascertained to be of unmixed 
Caucasian blood, with her daughter and grandson, 
were saved by ransom, only, from the operation of a 
decision directing their rendition into slavery. And I 
may add that in at least one case in this Common- 
wealth, a man was sent out of our jurisdiction, as a 
slave, the warrant against Avliom did not appear on 
its face to have been issued by any magistrate author- 
ized by the Act of Congress. 

Suggestions are sometimes urged that great conces- 
sions should be made as matter of comity between 
States. But I do not understand that any State 
demands, or that any State can consent to, the ren- 
dition of free persons into slavery. This whole matter, 
however, involves no question of comity, or inter-State 
politeness. It is a naked question of right between 
private pexsons, and of duty between the Common- 
wealth and its subjects. And all such rights can be 
protected by preserving a logical consistency, and not 
assigning to the certificate of a Commissioner a char- 
acter to which it does not even pretend, viz. : that of a 
record of a judgment settling the conflicting rights 
and titles of contending parties. 



1861.] SENATE— No. 2. 3-5 

Supposing, however, that our legislation in this 
behalf is founded in mistake, the Legislature will 
only have endeavored to perfomi their duty towards the 
citizen, whom they were bound to shield from unlawful 
harm. The power to obtain the judgment of the 
Court affords ample redress to all claimants. Should 
a critical examination disclose embarrassment in rais- 
ing and reserving questions of law for the appropriate 
tribunals, the Legislature will readily repair the error. 

In dismissing this topic, I have only to add that, 
in regard not only to one, but to every subject bearing 
on her Federal relations, Massachusetts has always 
conformed to her honest understanding of all constitu- 
tional obligations — that she has always conformed to 
the Judicial decisions — has never threatened either 
to nullify or to disobey — and that the decision in one 
suit fully contested, constitutes a precedent for the 
future. 

I submit these remarks and the subject, to the 
wisdom and candor of the Legislature. 

Massachusetts and Virginia. 

A suit is now pending in Virginia, arising out of an 
Act of her Legislature by means of which a citizen of 
Massachusetts was subjected to the forfeiture of his 
vessel while trading at the port of Norfolk a few years 
since. By that Act our coasters are annually large 
pecuniary sufferers. This Commonwealth has here- 
tofore made the needful appropriations, for the defence 



36 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

against the suit referred to. It was argued before the 
Court of Appeals nearly a year ago, but a decision 
there has not yet been reached. In the opinion of 
eminent counsel in Virginia, the Statute in question 
violates both the Constitution of the United States, and 
also that of Virginia herself I recommend an appro- 
priation to defray the expense of a writ of error, and 
an argument thereon before the Supreme Court of the 
United States, if the cause shall be decided against the 
defendant in the courts of Virginia. 

The Condition of the Country. 

The constitutional choice to the Presidency, of a 
citizen Avho adheres to the original principles of the 
Fathers of the Country, is the happy result of the 
recent National election. But by events which have 
since transpii-ed in the Southern States it appears that 
a large, influential, and energetic body of men in that 
section of the country, Avho control the action of at 
least the State of South Carolina, desire to resist, if 
necessary, by force of arms, this peaceful and consti- 
tutional triumph of Republican principles, to which 
they ought in honor and loyalty to yield a generous 
acquiescence. Forgetful of the traditions of their 
ancestors, they seem determined to live in peace under 
no government which shall not concede to them the 
privilege not only of enslaving their fellow-beings 
within their own dominion, but also of transporting 
them at their pleasure into the National Territory, or 



1861.] SENATE— No. 2. 37 

from State to State absolutely without restriction, and 
of retaining them as slaves wheresoever within the 
national limits they themselves may please to sojourn. 
It is the recpmmendation of President Buchanan in 
his recent annual message, that by means of consti- 
tutional amendments to be initiated by Congress or 
in a National Convention, concessions shall be made 
for the satisfaction of this extraordinary demand. 
This is a subject which I commend to your immediate 
but deliberate consideration, and I shall be happy to 
concur with what I hope will be the unanimous 
sentiment of the Legislature, in a declaration of the 
opinion of Massachusetts with reference to the state 
of the Union and the suggestions 'of the Federal 
Executive. 

If Massachusetts, either by voice or vote, can prop- 
erly do any thing to avert from those misguided men 
the miserable consequences which threaten to succeed 
their violent action, — the pecuniary disturbances and 
the civil commotions which must necessarily occur 
within their own borders if they persist in their career, 
her voice and vote should not be withheld. Not the 
least deplorable result of the action of South Carolina 
I apprehend will be the insecurity to life and property 
which will result throughout the whole South from fear 
of servile insurrection. Wherever slavery exists, we 
have the authority of Jefferson for believing that, in his 
own words, " the hour of emancipation is advancing in 
the march of time ; it will come ; and whether brought 



38 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

on by the geueioiis energy of our own minds, or by the 
bloody process of St. Dommgo, is a leaf of our history 
not turned over." The enslaved negro population of 
the South is not destitute of intelligence, nor devoid of 
that sentiment of resistance to tyranny which naturally 
inspires the oppressed to seek for freedom. If, as 
appears probable, it shall once conceive from the pres- 
ent march of events, that it has no hope of emanci- 
pation from any generous exertion of the minds of its 
masters, a resort to that process will be only the 
logical impulse of human nature. That God may be 
pleased to overrule the folly of man so as to avert so 
dreadful a calamity, must be the prayer of every 
American ; but in my judgment it lies at the end of 
the road which South Carolina invites her sister 
States upon the Gulf of Mexico to enter. 

I have searched the position of Massachusetts with 
all the disinterested patriotism which I could com- 
mand for the performance of that duty, and I find 
nothing by Avhich I can reproach her with responsi- 
bility for such results if they shall come to pass ; but 
I invite you to a similar examination. 

The truth of history compels me to declare that one 
chief source of the difficulty which we are called to en- 
counter, lies in the incessant misrepresentation of the 
principles, purposes, and methods of the people who 
compose the majority in the free States, by superservice- 
able individuals, who undertake to monopolize friend- 
ship for the people of the slave-holding States ; and can- 



1861.] SENATE— No. 2. 39 

dor requires me to add that they profess a friendship 
the largest part of which might be analyzed into 
dislike of their political opponents. I have for twenty 
years past, been a constant and careful observer 
of public men and affairs ; and for twelve years, 
at least, I have been intimately aware of the private 
as well as the public declarations and conduct of 
the representative men in almost every town and 
village of the Commonwealth. I think I may claim 
also some intimacy with the great body of the jjeople 
of Massachusetts, of whatsoever party. This jjeriod 
has been one of extraordinary and intense political 
interest. The tenderest sentiments, the deepest con- 
victions, the Avarmest emotions, have all been stirred 
by the course of public aifairs. Bitter disappoint- 
njents, the keenest sense of injustice, the conscious- 
ness of subjection to most flagrant wrong, have fallen 
to the lot of our people. The fugitive slave bill of 
1850, with its merciless severity, and the ostentatious 
indignity with which it was executed ; the repeal of 
the Missouri restriction upon the extension of slavery 
over national territory ; the violent means adopted to 
prevent emigrants from this Commonwealth from par- 
ticipating in the settlement of Kansas ; the invasion 
of that Territory by men armed with the plunder from 
national arsenals ; the imposition of fraudulent legis- 
latures upon a people temporarily subjugated by 
rufhanism and unprotected by a Federal Executive, 
Avhich also forbade them to protect themselves; the 



40 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

indiscriminate pUlage, fire and slaughter to ■wliicli 
peaceable settlers were subjected without cause or 
excuse ; the repeated exertions of the national admin- 
istration in conspiracy with the enemies of freedom 
and good government, to impose and enforce upon 
Kansas a Constitution sanctioning slavery ; the 
attempt to withdraw the discussion of political ques- 
tions from the people themselves and to confine it to a 
conclave of judges ; the assault upon free speech in 
Congress by a murderous attack upon a Senator in his 
seat, for opinions expressed in debate and for the 
manner of their expression ; the indifference or posi- 
tive approval with which this attempt to overthrow 
representative institutions, was treated throughout a 
large portion of the country ; the prostitution of all 
the powers of the government and the bending of all 
its energy to propagate a certain interest for the benefit 
of a few speculators in lands, negroes, and politics, 
and to discourage the free labor of the toUing masses 
of the people ; the menaces of violence and war 
against the Constitution and the Union Avith which 
our arguments and our constitutional resistance have 
been met ; — these all are but a part of the record of 
the last ten years of American political history, which 
is burned into the memory of the people of Massa- 
chusetts. 

And yet, during all the excitement of this period, 
inflamed by the heats of repeated Presidential elec- 
tions, I have never known a single Massachusetts 



1861.] SENATE— No. 2. , 41 

republican to abandon his loyalty, surrender his faith, 
or seal up his heart against the good hopes and kind af- 
fections which every devoted citizen ought to entertain 
for every section of his country. During all this mal- 
administration of the national government, the people of 
Massachusetts have never wavered from their faith in its 
principles or their loyalty to its organization. Looking 
forward to the long ages of the future; building always, 
in their own minds, for countless generations yet to 
come ; they have endured and are willing still, cheer- 
fully and hopefully to endure much Avrong and more 
misconception, because they trust in the blood inher- 
ited from heroic ancestors ; m the principles of constitu- 
tional liberty; in the theory of democratic institutions ; 
in the honest purpose of the intelligent masses of the 
people everywhere; in the capacity of Truth and Eight 
ultimately to reach and control the minds of men ; in 
an undying affection for their whole country, its mem- 
ories, traditions and hopes ; and above all, in the good 
Providence of God. 

It was at a great cost that our fathers established 
their independence, and erected this Union of States, — 
which exists imder the form of a National Govern- 
ment, unquestionable as to its authority to act on all 
persons and all things within the sphere of its juris- 
diction and the range of its granted powers. It needs 
ask permission from no one to fulfil its functions or to 
perpetuate its existence. It has no right nor power to 
abdicate ; nor to expel a State, or any portion of the 



42 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

people of any State, from the benefits of its protection ; 
nor to permit their revolt against the duties of a com- 
mon citizenship. By the incurring of national debts, 
by the granting of pensions, patents and copy-rights, 
by the issue of commissions establishing a tenure of 
office not terminable at the pleasure of the appointing 
power, by the purchase and the conquest of territory 
erected into additional States, by the improvement of 
harbors and rivers and the construction of military 
roads, by the settlement of wildernesses and the de- 
velopment of their resources imder the national pat- 
ronage, by the investment of vast sums of money in 
buildings for the transaction of public business, in 
light-houses, navy yards, fortifications, vessels of war, 
and their equipment, by the assumption of obligations 
under treaties with Indian tribes and foreign powers, 
the People of the United States have paid and are 
paying a continuing consideration for the existence of 
this National Government in all its sovereign territo- 
rial integrity. All the people of all the States are 
interlocked and interlaced in a vast web of mutual 
interests, rights and obligations as various and as 
precious as are the characteristics of that wonderful 
civilization in which they participate. And this Union, 
through whatever throes or crises it may pass, can- 
not expire except with the annihilation of the People. 
Come what may, I believe that Massachusetts will do 
her duty. She Avill stand by the incoming National Ad- 
ministration, as she has stood by the past ones ; because 



1861.] SENATE— No. 2. 43 

her peojDle will forever stand by their Country. The 
records of her Revolutionary history declare her ca- 
pacity and her will to expend money, sympathy and- 
men to sustain the common cause. More than half 
the soldiers of the Revolution were furnished by New 
England ; and Massachusetts alone contributed more 
men to the Federal armies than Avere enlisted in all 
the Southern States. She is willing to make the same 
sacrifices again, if need be, in the same cause ; — and her 
capacity to do so has increased in proportion with the 
increase in her wealtli and population. The echoes of 
the thunder of her Revolutionary battle-fields have not 
yet died away upon the ears of her sons, and the vows 
and prayers of her early patriots still whisper their 
inspiration. The people of Massachusetts will, in any 
event, abide by her plighted faith. She agreed to the 
Constitution of the United States. It is the charter 
of the Union, it is the record of the contract, and the 
written evidence of rights intended to be secured to 
the States and to the People. 

History shows that never at any one time is there 
more than one grand issue on trial under a popular 
government, before the great tribunal of the people. 
A reactionary movement against the doctrines and 
traditions of liberty handed down from the beginning, 
precipitated the trial in the elections of 1856 of an 
issue made up upon the relation of slavery to the 
territorial possessions of the nation, and the right 
of the People to manage those possessions so as 



44 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

to protect themselves, preserve their liberties, 
strengthen the Union, promote the common happiness 
.and welfare, and best develop the resources of the 
lands within exclusive Federal jurisdiction. By the 
conduct and manifest designs of the leaders of that 
same reactionary movement, the same issue was kept 
open and presented to the country in a form still 
more intense, and a popular verdict demanded in 
the elections of 1860. >So far as that issue can 
be settled by a popular election of President of the 
United States, its settlement is for the present, com- 
plete. In the next National election it may again be 
presented and the grand issue of 1860 be repeated in 
1864, should the people of the country be of opinion 
that any duty or practical advantage remains dependent 
on the possible result of a new trial. Meanwhile 
other duties command our immediate care. There is 
now no issue before the people touching their political 
relations to slavery in the Territories. The policy of 
the National Government in that regard is determined 
for the next four years ; but instead of preparing for a 
re-hearing and an endeavor to reverse the verdict at 
the end of that period, that party of reaction has now 
engaged in an effort to abolish the tribunal and over- 
throw the authority of the People themselves. And 
the single question now presented to the nation is 
this — Shall a reactionary spirit, unfriendly to liberty, 
be permitted to subvert democratic republican government 
organized under constitutional forms ? 



1861.] SENATE— No. 2. 45 

Upon this issue, over the heads of all mere politi- 
cians and partisans, in behalf of the Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts I appeal directly to the Avarm hearts 
and clear heads of the great masses of the people. 
The men who own and till the soil, who drive the mills, 
and hammer out their own iron and leather on their 
own anvils and lapstones, and they who, whether in the 
city or the country, reap the rewards of enterprising 
industry and skill in the varied pursuits of business, are 
honest, intelligent, patriotic, independent, and brave. 
They know that simple defeat in an election is no cause 
for the disruption of a government. They know that 
those who declare that they will not live peaceably 
within the Union, do not mean to live peaceably out 
of it. They know that the people of all sections have 
a right which they intend to maintain, of free access 
from the interior to both oceans, and from Canada to 
the Gulf of ^lexico, and of the free use of all the 
lakes and rivers and highways of commerce. North, 
South, East or West. They know that the Union 
means Peace, and unfettered commercial intercourse 
from sea to sea and from shore to shore ; that it 
secures us all against the unfriendly presence or possi- 
ble dictation of any foreign power, and commands 
respect for our flag and security for our trade. 
And they do not intend, nor will they ever con- 
sent, to be excluded from these rights which they 
have so long enjoyed, nor to abandon the prospect of 
the benefits which Humanity claims for itself by 



46 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

means of their continued enjoyment in the future. 
Neither -will they consent that the continent shall be 
overrun by the victims of a remorseless cupidity, and 
the elements of civil danger increased by the barbar- 
izing influences which accompany the African slave 
trade. Inspired by the same ideas and emotions which 
commanded the fraternization of Jackson and Webster 
on another great occasion of public danger, the people 
of Massachusetts, confiding in the patriotism of 
their brethren in other States, accept this issue, 
and respond, in the words of Jackson " The Federal 
Union, it ?nust he preserved ! " 

Until we complete the Avork of rolling back this wave 
of rebellion which threatens to engulf the government, 
overthrow democratic institutions, subject the people 
to the rule of a minority, if not of mere military despot- 
ism, and in some communities to endanger the very 
existence of civilized society, we cannot turn aside, 
and we will not turn back. It is to those of our 
brethren in the disaffected States whose mouths are 
closed by a temporary reign of terror, not less than to 
oursehes, that we owe this labor Avhich, with the help 
of Providence, it is our duty to perform. 

I need not add that whatever rights pertain to any 
person under the Constitution of the Union, are secure 
in Massachusetts, while the Union shall endure ; and 
whatever authority or function pertains to the Federal 
Government for the maintenance of any such right, is 
an authority or function which neither the Govern- 



1861.] SENATE— No. 2. 4T 

ment nor the people of this C'ommonwealth can, or 
would, usurp, evade or overthrow. And Massachu- 
setts demands, and has a right to demand, that 
her sister States shall likewise respect the consti- 
tutional rights of her citizens witliin their limits. 
And it is a reproach to human nature, and a breach 
of honor, that more of her free citizens, who hap- 
pened to touch the soil of South Carolina, should 
have been sold into slavery under laws the assertion 
of the unconstitutionality of which that State punishes 
with a grievous penalty, than ever fugitive slaves have 
escaped from South Carolina to Massachusetts. 

The Pacific Railroad. 

I congratulate the country upon the passage of the 
Pacific Railroad Bill through the House of Represen- 
tatives at the present session of Congress, and upon 
the probable early adoption of the same measure by 
the Senate. Its prompt enactment is due to our 
brethren on the Pacific coast, as an earnest of our 
desire for speedy, safe, and ample communication 
between them and ourselves ; and while it will open 
vast territories abounding in agricultural and mineral 
wealth, it must also add to the trade and importance 
of the great maritime cities. It has been framed 
in a spirit of honorable concession to supposed con- 
flicting interests, but it will inure to the benefit of all. 




013 703 179 6 
48 GOVERNORS ADDRESS. [Jan. 'Gl. 

Gentlemen of the Senate and 

House of Representatives: 

With unaffected solicitude, I approach this office ; 
but with the frankness Avhich is due to you, to the 
occasion, and to our constituency I commit these 
inquiries, opinions and suggestions to your wise and 
patriotic covmsels. The People and the State are 
entitled to our honest thought and our best services. 
At the termination of this career of public duty, I 
trust that a consciousness of faithful purpose and 
patient effort will be our groat reward. 



